Akhmetov allegedly making payments to Zelensky structures, news site reports

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s biggest oligarch, earmarks
USD 2.0-2.5 mln per month in payments to the President’s Office and the
pro-presidential People’s Servant party, which has the largest faction in
parliament, the pravda.com.ua news site reported on Sept. 23, citing one of
Ukraine’s largest entrepreneurs (who was not identified). At the same time, the
source said Akhmetov doesn’t have any loyal officials in either structure. In
response, Akhmetov’s press service said the claim is “an absolute lie,” insisting
the billionaire hasn’t been involved in politics since 2012. He is focused on
charity and the Donetsk Shakhtar football club instead. In its turn, the
President’s Office issued a statement labeling the report “obviously fake
information,” urging journalists to refrain from sources that “above all use
you to advance their narrow and not rare corrupt interests.”

Ihor Kolomoisky, another billionaire in Ukraine who is
confirmed to have provided financing for Zelensky’s political party, engaged in
reckless and dangerous investments in the U.S., many of which involved funds
that he is accused by the U.S. Justice Department of illegally laundering out
of Ukraine, according to an extensive report published on Sept. 22 by the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. These investments
involved the transfer of an estimated USD 750 mln to the U.S. to acquire at
least 22 properties. In his wake, Kolomoisky and his associates left a trail of
empty, boarded-up buildings, unpaid property taxes, dangerous factory
conditions, unemployed workers, and at least four steel mills that filed for
bankruptcy, ICIJ found. Under Kolomoisky’s ownership, hundreds of steelworkers
in Kentucky, New York state and Ohio lost their jobs, court records state.

Zenon Zawada: We had noticed in March the
President’s Office adopting a policy of “diversifying” its oligarch base to
beyond the scandalous Kolomoisky to include Akhmetov (who has his own share of
scandals). That way, Andriy Yermak helped to relieve Zelensky of the pressure
to fulfill Kolomoisky’s reckless policies, which include trying to return
control over Privatbank and proposing that Ukraine abandon IMF cooperation.

We can’t rule out the possibility of Akhmetov
financing Zelensky’s political structures as part of his alliance with the
Zelensky administration. But we certainly dismiss the ridiculous claim by his
press service that he hasn’t been involved in politics in 2012.

Unfortunately, neither Akhmetov nor Kolomoisky have
been a positive influence on independent Ukraine in its quest to join Western
political structures and adopt Western values and norms in society. The
Ukrainian public, which is otherwise interested in Western integration, has
been held hostage to these self-serving oligarchs for much of Ukrainian
independence.